Ryan Coogler’s Net Worth Proves He’s the Real MVP of the Director’s Chair

The Breakdown: Ryan Coogler is one of the most successful directors in Hollywood. But long before his booming career and net worth, he was a college student trying to find his way.

Since the release of Fruitville Station, Ryan has been one of the hottest directors in the game. Ryan has an unconventional path to filmmaking, but he’s on top. Ryan’s path to filmmaking began unexpectedly during his time in college. He later went on to pursue filmmaking full-time.

In 2013, Ryan made his feature film debut with Fruitvale Station, a portrayal of the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a young Black man fatally shot by police in Oakland. The film was a commercial and artistic hit. It won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and established Ryan as a promising filmmaker.

Since then, Ryan has been consistently dropping masterpieces, and he has the net worth to back it up. The creator has built a fortune from his films.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ryan has a net worth of $25 million. Ryan has been raking in dough for years following the success of Fruitville Station. He later directed Creed, which grossed over $170 million worldwide, and Black Panther, a cultural phenomenon that raked in $1.4 billion globally, per Box Office Mojo. Its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, was equally as successful. The movie earned over $850 million, contributing greatly to Ryan's net worth.

In 2025, Ryan released Sinners, a vampire thriller set in the Jim Crow-era South. The film earned $45.6 million domestically and $15.4 million internationally in its opening weekend. Ryan also secured a rare deal with Warner Bros., securing a percentage of the film's gross revenue before the studio recouped its costs and ownership rights after 25 years, according to Business Insider.

Ryan got his start at Saint Mary's College in California, where he was on a football scholarship. An English professor later recognized his talent for storytelling and encouraged him to pursue screenwriting. After transferring to California State University, Sacramento, he continued to explore his passion for film, eventually enrolling at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Ryan’s wife, Zinzi Coogler, helped kick-start the director’s career. The couple began dating in 2016, and Zinzi gave him money to purchase screenwriting software that helped the then-young director write his first script.

“I was trying to write in Microsoft Word. It’s impossible because your format gotta be right,” he told Hot 97. “I was broke, playing football on the little scholarship money. And my wife scraped together some cheese and bought me Final Draft, which is the software that you write your movies on. And she got me that."